Composition for cleaning and preserving carpets



. UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

ROBERT N. HYDE, OF DEs MOINES, IOWA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 392,205, dated November 6, 1888.

Application filed March 22, 1887.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT N. HYDE, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Des Moines, in the county of Polk and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Compound for Cleaning and Preserving Carpets, of which the following is a specification.

My composition consists of the following ingredients, combined in about the proportions stated, viz: Distilled water, one gallon; pulverized borax, a half-pound; soluble soap, two pounds; aqua-ammonia, six ounces; bay-rum, two ounces; oil of sassafras, a half-ounce; alcohol, two ounces. These ingredients are united to produce a detersive fluid that is adapted to be put up in bottles or other Water-tight vessels of any size or shape desired, to be sold as a new product of manufacture and merchandise, so that persons can procure any quantity necessary to apply to any given number of yards of carpet or other textile fabric that is to be cleaned.

In the practical use of my compound I take one part of the fluid and add two parts of distilled water or pure rain-water, and then heat it and apply it to the carpet with a brush and then rub the fabric with a cloth. It is not necessary to take up a carpet from the floor;

but by simply first sweeping off loose dirt and then applying the fluid to the surface and rubbing the wet surface with a cloth it will readily get clean and bright and also odoriferous, as required, to preserve the fiber from the ravages of moth. By means of the pungent'oil thus applied while washing the carpet such oil is uniformly distributed through the fabric and the cleansing and preserving process simultaneously performed and time and labor saved in cleaning and odorizing a carpet or other textile fabric, as required. to improve its appearance and to prevent it from harboring insects that damage the goods and are a nuisance wherever lodged.

I am aware that hydrocarbon oil, ammonia, borax, and alcohol have been compounded to produce a washing-liquid; but my composition, in which an aromatic pungent oil is embodied, produces a new result, in that it adapts the compound for preserving carpets from moth as well as for cleaning them.

I am also aware that oil of sassafras has been used in a composition of matter designed to be used as an insecticide; but a compound specially adapted for cleaning carpets having oil of Sassafras therein in sufficient quantity to preserve the fabric Washed therewith from the ravages of moth is novel and greatly advantageous.

I am also aware that carbolic acid has been made a component part of soap, and that car- .bolic soap will destroy insects and odorize; but the odor is offensive, and the cost of the carbolic acid is much in excess of the cost of oil of sassafras, and for these reasons not adapted to be used as a substitute or equivalent of the pungent oil used in my compound.

I claim as my invention-- 'A fluid for cleaning carpets and preserving them from moth, consisting of water, borax, soa angg gp ia, bay rp m, oil of Sassafras, and a cohol, in the proportions stated.

ROBERT N. HYDE.

iVit-nesses:

THOMAS G. ORWIG,

R. H. ORWIG. 

